Village in Northamptonshire hit by tap water health scare gets £1.3m network upgrade

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Published:15:10Monday 02 February 2015

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A village where residents were told to boil their water for a week because it was unsafe will get a £1.3 million upgrade of its water supply network.

In September, people living in Upper Boddington is west Northamptonshire were told not drink their tap water because it “may not have been up to its usual high standard”.

Now Anglian Water has revealed it will carry out an upgrade of the network.

In a statement, which made no mention of the health scare, the firm said it was designed to “signficantly reduce the chance of burst mains in the area”.

Paul Valleley, director of Water Services for Anglian Water, said: “Since the most recent burst main, last autumn, we’ve been working to understand the root cause of problems in the area.

“As part of our investigations we’ve also been in touch with local residents, the parish council and other stakeholders to ensure the work we are planning will address any concerns they had.

“After a thorough investigation, we’ve designed a solution to dramatically reduce the chances of burst mains or similar issues in future.”

Work began today and will include improvements to a pumping station near to Upper Boddington and helping to ensure the water in the local pipe network is kept at a more consistent pressure, even during peak times.

The work will take about six weeks to complete and Frog Lane in the village will be closed.

Mr Vallely added: “We know that this work on our network will cause some disruption but we are acutely aware how important it is to minimise the chances of this happening again. Having spoken to our customers in Upper Boddington on many occasions we are confident they appreciate this and the long term benefit it will bring to the area.

“Frog Lane is a particularly narrow road so a rolling road closure will be in force during the pipe replacement work. We’ve already written to residents to let them know what’s happening and when. We will be doing everything we can to allow vehicle access to homes in Frog Lane during the work. The footpath will remain open.”